Biography

Harrisons and Crosfield was founded in 1844 by Daniel Harrison, Smith Harrison and Joseph Crosfield as a British tea and coffee trading company. One of the largest tea merchant houses by the turn of the twentieth century, Harrisons and Crosfield diversified in 1905 by acquiring several small rubber estates near Klang in Selangor, Malaya, forming Golden Hope Rubber Estate Limited. The firm steadily acquired more rubber plantations through a series of mergers, amalgamations and acquisitions. In 1977, the ‘three sisters’ (the three substantial plantation estates of Golden Hope, Pataling and London Asiatic) merged to form Harrisons Malaysian Estates Ltd. In 1990 the business was renamed after its oldest estate, Golden Hope Plantation, to reflect the change in management when Permodolan Nasional Berhad acquired a majority ownership stake. In November 2007, Golden Hope Plantations Berhad merged with Sime Darby and Kumpulan Guthrie to form Synergy Drive, later Sime Darby Berhad.